


A Beneficial Arrangement

by Hours_Gone_By



Series: AU Yeah AUgust 2019 [5]
Category: Transformers - Aligned Continuity Family, Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Gen, Marriage Contracts, Political Alliances, au yeah august
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-09-01 01:54:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20250238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hours_Gone_By/pseuds/Hours_Gone_By
Summary: Made consort to Megatron in a failed attempt by the ruling council of the noble caste to humble the upstart gladiator, Mirage finds himself in Kaon, a city like nothing he's experienced before.Part 2 of theArranged Marriagefill from 2018's AU Yeah August but you should be able to follow this without reading that.





	A Beneficial Arrangement

**Author's Note:**

> Day #7 - Arranged Marriage

Mirage had known for his entire life that he was meant to make a strong alliance with whomever his creators selected for him. He wasn't completely without choice, he had veto power, and even a certain amount of selection power provided his creators approved of the mech he chose. Mirage also had an understanding of the importance of alliances and how they could be used to not only strengthen two or more Towers but also to weaken them. Allied Towers might work together to block the actions of another, or one Tower in the alliance might create such obligations for another that they could not act against a third without jeopardizing it.

Mirage's cousin Tracks had shattered a vorns-old monopoly that way. With the way Tracks and his spouse gazed at each other even to this day, though, Mirage wasn't entirely sure they had even noticed.

The reality of Mirage's alliance was slightly different, though not by much. Instead of being proposed by Mirage's family, it was offered and negotiated by the _Saecularia_, the guiding council of the noble caste. Occasionally the _Saecularia _would act as a neutral party and negotiate a contract between feuding Towers as a means to bring about peace, but that was not the reason in this instance. A gladiator named Megatron was speaking out against the caste system that supported the Towers, making waves, speaking as if he deserved the same as the nobility for merely _being_. The _Saecularia_ had offered him one of their own as a consort, with all the rights and privileges thereof, and Megatron had accepted. The guiding council expected him to be overwhelmed when he visited the Towers to sign the contract, realize he didn’t belong, and once again quietly accept his place in society.

They hadn’t expected him to go through with it. They had been wrong and, as a result, completely unprepared when he did so.

Even when nobles in a marriage contract weren’t to reside together, the signing of the contract was generally a lavish affair, involving many witnesses, an expensive outlay, and quite often a feast as well. Mirage's creators hadn't made such extensive preparations. Truthfully, beyond having a hard copy of the contract made on high-quality writing foil, they had made no preparations at all. Instead of an expensive public signing, Mirage and Megatron had signed their contract privately, at Mirage's family home in one of the withdrawing rooms. Instead of large and symbolic groups of witnesses, there were only three: Mirage's creators and a silent, faceless, mech named Soundwave who had accompanied Megatron. The only decorations were the ones already present in the room, and the glyphs painstakingly painted onto Mirage by his Sator. Lunch had been a tense, unhappy affair, at least on the part of Mirage's family. Megatron seemed mildly smug, and Soundwave was utterly unreadable.

Now, Mirage was in a transport, _en route _to Kaon with his new spouse. Mirage was not required to live with Megatron, a contract was as much a symbol as an agreement and sometimes even more so. But Megatron had spoken as if Mirage moving to Kaon were already settled. Mirage knew that if he refused to do so, Megatron would use that to show how the upper castes could not be trusted. Mirage could have walked away, but he had no intention of helping Megatron feed the revolutionary propaganda machine. He had signed, and when Megatron had said he needed to return to Kaon immediately, he had kissed his creators farewell and walked out the door on the gladiator's arm. Megatron was large and powerful, an undefeated champion, but Mirage wasn't concerned Megatron would hurt him. That didn't serve the gladiator's purposes.

The transport was public, but their compartment was private, at least. Mirage was very obviously out of place aboard it, even more so considering the terminus was Kaon.

"You should look out the window, my dear," Megatron said. "I'm sure the scenery is quite different from what you're accustomed to."

"Of course," Mirage said politely, doing so. "I'm sure you experienced much the same thing on your journey in, my spouse."

Megatron made a soft noise that could have been either acknowledgement or disapproval of Mirage's words, but the rest of the journey was silent.

* * *

Mirage's first impression of Kaon was smog. It blanketed the industrial areas of the city, which was most of it, and the smelting pools barely showed through it, orange and sullen. Mirage knew that Kaon was the industrial core of Cybertron and some pollution was sure to be expected, but this – just walking through this could be dangerous. His second impression, once they got into what he presumed was either a residential or a business area with less smog, was of gray, blocky, inelegant buildings. These were not built to please the optic or show off one's wealth. They were made only to contain mecha and their requirements and nothing else. The only building that looked remotely decorated was the gladiatorial arena, its twisting spires dwarfing the buildings around it.

"I have a place for you in the former arena master's spire. Soundwave will show you the way," Megatron said once the transport had landed. He rose. "You will excuse me, I've some business to attend to."

Soundwave was standing as well, and he watched Megatron leave. Once Megatron was out of sight, Soundwave's attention snapped to Mirage. He regarded the noble silently for several nano-kliks and then gestured to Mirage to follow him. Not seeing what else he could do, Mirage did so.

The corridors through which they walked were empty and – not entirely clean. Mirage was intensely self-conscious of his own high-gloss polish and the ceremonial glyphs painted on his helm. Soundwave did not speak to him or look at him as they traversed the halls and rode a lift to the promised apartment, but Mirage still felt he was being observed.

The apartment was…not what Mirage was used to. It was large, and it was opulent and, thank Primus, it was clean, but it was absolutely _tasteless_. Whoever the arena master had been, they had been under the unfortunate impression that more, and shiny, and more shiny objects on top of that was better.

"Does Megatron live here?" Mirage asked Soundwave hesitantly, though he felt he knew the answer. Soundwave shook his head. "Will he require anything of me?"

Soundwave stared – if that was what you called it when you couldn't tell if a mech had optics – at him for a long klik then turned and silently, deliberately, exited. Mirage was left alone, with no idea of what was expected of him now.

The next few megacycles didn't give him any better of an idea of what Megatron wanted him to _do_. Usually, he would have at least had servants to instruct in running the household, but all Mirage saw were the cleaning drones. It occurred to him that perhaps Megatron hadn't expected _Mirage _to go through with it, or to stay if he did and thus hadn't planned beyond this point. Certainly, Mirage had to admit, many of his peers would have contacted the family lawyers by now to dissolve the contract, from sheer boredom if nothing else. Mirage didn't even have much a view. He could see the immediate environs outside the arena and the ever-present smog. Once, a spectacular sunset when Hadeen managed to show through. The pollution was still better than the optic-fritzing décor, however. Mirage swore he'd had to degauss his visual feed at least once a cycle since arriving.

Typically, Mirage would simply have hired decorators to take care of it for him. Well. Had his housekeeper arrange it for him at least. But even if he could find an acceptable decorator in Kaon, which he doubted, how would it look if Kaon's master's consort spent funds on such a thing? If Mirage wished to disprove Megatron's opinions of the noble classes, he had to do it in such a way that it could not be used against his caste. Fortunately, there was a way to do that and rid himself of the excess contents of the room. He could do little about the walls, floors, fixtures, and fittings, but he had no use, or desire, for most of the decorative objects. (He refused to even try to think of them as _objet d'art_.) Their presence indicated that, bafflingly, there was a market for such things and there was surely some-some charity or other in Kaon that could use the donation?

Mirage spent a few more cycles sorting through the items and organizing them by style, material, and quality. His next task was to find out how to go about selling them, and to whom he should donate the proceeds.

This was much easier when one had an under-butler to assign to such a task. Fortunately, even without servants, Mirage was still capable and adaptable. He could learn how to do it. There was surely someone, some bit of information on the DataNet that would tell him how. As for where the money should go, Mirage had to admit that he doubted anyone working out of Kaon had a robust DataNet presence. Besides, Mirage did not want to do this without Megatron's full knowledge and, hopefully, approval. It had taken less than five kliks exposure to see that Megatron was intelligent and cunning regardless of his origins. Mirage had no doubt he had a healthy wariness about the motivations of others as well. How to get his spouse's attention was another question, but it turned out to be easily solved. The very afternoon Mirage finished sorting, Megatron entered and let his gaze sweep over the significantly more cluttered apartment. Then his optics fixed on Mirage.

"Planning to redecorate, are we?" he inquired. "Shall I expect a legion of Crystal City's finest and most expensive artisans to descend upon my humble arena?"

Megatron's voice held an edge that Mirage understood meant he was not to be trifled with. Mirage would have to tread carefully to avoid giving offence – or fodder. Fortunately, that seemed easily done.

"Not at all, Megatron," Mirage replied, moving to stand at a polite but respectful distance from the other mech. "I simply found there to be an excess of decoration in these rooms. I want to lessen the amount."

"I see." Megatron picked up a delicate-looking silver statuette and held it in his hand, examining it studiously. "And what is it you intend to do with this…excess?"

"I wanted to ask you about that." That got Megatron's attention on him again. Mirage wasn't entirely sure that was a good thing. "You know far better than I what the mecha of Kaon need. Where would the proceeds from the sale of these," he gestured toward the collected items, "be put to the best use?"

Megatron considered Mirage for several nano-kliks, then nodded briefly and set the statuette back down. "I will have Soundwave assist you with the sale, and in dispersing the shanix where it would be most appropriate." Evidently, they were done because Megatron turned to leave. He paused in the open doorway, hands clasped behind his back, and glanced back at Mirage. "Perhaps some aspects of this agreement may be beneficial, after all."

As the doors swished closed behind him, Mirage wondered if he weren't playing into Megatron's hands after all.


End file.
